We establish the right price for your property. You sign a two page Exclusive Right To Sell Agreement with Devlin McNiff, which formalizes length of Exclusive relationship, price, and commission. We also establish showing procedures appropriate to your needs. Property is introduced to Devlin McNiff sales staff and Devlin McNiff marketing staff. Devlin McNiff invites all brokerage firms in the marketing area to participate in selling your property (Co-Broking the listing). We hold a Broker Open House. We produce a package of relevant information – survey, fact sheet, photographs, co-broke agreement. Devlin McNiff uses all the most effective marketing tools to make the public aware of your property and to position it as an excellent value: Internet – including Trulia.com, Frontdoor.com, ... 02/01/2011

"You don't have to pay it" says The New York Times, and they give you several tactics for sellers to get around paying the 6% we so often see, especially in New York.  The Times suggests these strategies: Interview several agents before signing a listing agreement to see if they will take less. If the buyer doesn't have an agent, negotiate a reduced commission to, say, 5%. Engage the same agent to sell your home and help you purchase your next one. Choose an agency that offers less services where you do some, if not most, of the work. Use an independent agent who does not have to split the commission with a large company. Prices in the New York real estate market rise and fall, the trend in housing may come and go, but one think has remained essentially unaffected--the 6% broker commiss... 01/29/2011

I wrote a blog, "Deal or No Deal" (to follow) and wanted to give some feedback to the people who have emailed and called me asking about the situation.  I will paste the blog here and then follow it up with the latest information.  Here's the scenerio:  My customers and I find the perfect house.  They're eager to buy... I'm eager to sell.  They are receiving the down payment from their parents as part of their inheritance.  The parents took a loan out against the house which my customers will inherit.   When applying for the mortgage, having already been pre-approved, the bank wants to know where the 20% down payment is coming from.  They hedge... is it a gift?  Well, not exactly.  It's an advance on their inheritance.  The bank insists the money given is a gift.  The New York gift tax,... 01/26/2011

I'm back on the mortgage bandwagon today.  If you liked, "Shamed Into Altering a Mortgage"  you'll love this! In this morning's New York Times, a secret was revealed that had been under wraps until last week.   "Since the government took over Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, taxpayers have spent more than $160 million defending the mortgage finance companies and their former top executives in civil lawsuits accusing them of fraud." Can you say, what the #!%$?! The dirty secret came out when the companies and their regulator had to provide their accounting at the request of Congress. The bulk of the money, $132 million, went to defend Fannie Mae and it's officials in various security suits and government investigations that, get this, showed accounting irregularities well before the sub-prime... 01/23/2011

According to the NY Times and other sources, Veterans Affairs Secretary Eric Shinseki has vowed to bring veteran homelessness to a stop in five years.  Should this be the case, the government will have to do exceptional intervention with the "hard cases", those who have been on the streets many years, who are addicted to drugs and/or alcohol, in frail mind and body, and shuffle between emergency rooms, shelters and care giver's homes, putting a strain on the entire system. In an attempt to break this cycle, Los Angeles has a new strategy for a small group of the most troubled Veterans known as "housing first".  "This approach has been successful with the Department of Housing and Urban Development for nearly a decade, doesn't wait for people to sober up or get a job before they're given... 01/22/2011

In this morning's NY Times there's an article about how the Bank of America was finally "shamed" into making a home loan modification after a particular case received some publicity (an article about the same woman a month prior) and her house being foreclosed upon. This is an all too familiar story.  A person falls on a hardship and would seem to qualify for a home loan modification, only to get the run-around and have their house go into foreclosure before they know it.  The story of this retired person on a fixed income goes something like this:  She lost her upstairs renter and without the rental income, could not afford her mortgage.  Once she fell behind in payments, she couldn't catch up.  She applied for a loan modification over the course of three months with Bank of America an... 01/22/2011

REAL ESTATE Recovery on Move: December 2010 Existing-Home Sales Jump 12.3 Percent RISMEDIA, January 21, 2011—Existing-home sales rose sharply in December 2010, when sales increased for the fifth time in the past six months, according to the National Association of REALTORS®. Existing-home sales, which are completed transactions that include single-family, townhomes, condominiums and co-ops, rose 12.3% to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 5.28 million in December from an upwardly revised 4.70 million in November, but remain 2.9% below the 5.44 million pace in December 2009. TECHNOLOGY Mobile Internet's Missing Ingredient Analysts focus on iPhones and tablets, but overlook what makes those magical devices tick. - Forbes At Google, a Boost From E-Commerce Google’s strong fourth-quarter ... 01/21/2011

My customers and I find the perfect house.  They're eager to buy... I'm eager to sell.  They are receiving the down payment from their parents as part of their inheritance.  The parents took a loan out against the house which my customers will inherit.   When applying for the mortgage, having already been pre-approved, the bank wants to know where the 20% down payment is coming from.  They hedge... is it a gift?  Well, not exactly.  It's an advance on their inheritance.  The bank insists the money given is a gift.  The New York gift tax, the last I checked, was around 23%.  Neither my customers nor the parents have the, what works out to be around $30,000 extra to pay the tax. Both customers and parents are discouraged and think they may have to give up on the house.  The bank is no hel... 01/20/2011

Peacefulness in the Winter on Long Island NY by NY Feng Shui consultant Laura Cerrano Today I had a Feng Shui Consultation all the way out in East Hampton NY.  The day before, I was maneuvering around Down Town Manhattan.  In two days I have had the pleasure of being to complete opposite sides of Long Island NY. I really wanted to explore the beaches and towns out east so, to start off my series of Three posts... Lets take a nice walk along the East Hampton Beaches :) Enjoy! Tall grass along the East Hampton Beach on Long Island NY Care to dip your toes in the Ocean? You need to Practice for the Polar bear club :) East Hampton NY Beach Homes druing the Winter season    Feng Shui LI in New York *Carole Provenzale has been a Certified Feng Shui Consultant since graduating from the Country... 01/20/2011

REAL ESTATE HOUSE OF THE DAY   WASHINGTON, D.C. The Late Ted Kennedy's White House Lingers on the Market - Curbed National The Love Affair With the Fireplace Cools Hard as it may be to believe, the fireplace — long considered a trophy, particularly in a city like New York — is acquiring a social stigma. Among those who aspire to be environmentally responsible, it is joining the ranks of bottled water and big houses. - NY Times From Struggling Owners to Stable Renters THERE are many factors behind the mortgage crisis, but there is only one simple explanation for why we have failed to solve it. Any effort to help homeowners by forgiving some of their loans is said to create a moral hazard, rendering it politically toxic. But without help, homeowners continue to struggle, foreclosures cont... 01/20/2011

Just a few tidbits this morning.  Hope you find some of interest.  Kim REAL ESTATE NAR Pulse: This Week’s Top Stories from the NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF REALTORS® RISMEDIA, January 19, 2011—This week’s headlines from the NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF REALTORS® include: social media made easy with VIP combination pack; a discounted webinar on managing your time commitment to social media while getting results from REALTOR® University; and REALTOR® volunteer and mentor program seeks nominations. ARCHIFACTS   CHILE Work of These Arquitectos Wouldn't Get Lost in Translation The Chilean architecture firm dRN, founded in 2005 by Nicolás del Río and Max Núñez, has turned out plenty of compelling and innovative homes. For the past five years, dRN has produced the type of spare, efficient houses that co... 01/19/2011

REAL ESTATE HOUSE OF THE DAY   NASHVILLE, TENN. Music City Mansion Fit For Southern Society Queen Have a nomination for a jaw-dropping listing that would make a mighty fine House of the Day? Get thee to the tipline and send us your suggestions. We'd love to see what you've got.   Location: Nashville, Tenn.Price: $22,500,000 Landlord Sues His Tenants, Objecting to an $81 Million Renovation They Paid For At a gala dinner next month, the developers Peter L. and Anthony E. Malkin are the leading contender for a Pinnacle Award, the real estate equivalent of a Golden Globe, for their $81 million renovation of a building across West 34th Street from Macy’s. But their moment of glorious anticipation is being undercut by a lawsuit brought by another developer, Charles Cohen, whose company happen... 01/18/2011

Here we go...  I feel like I should have theme music, lol.  Are many of you finding this helpful, or just a handful.  I've received a lot of positive feedback... but looking for more opinions to see if I should keep at it.  Thanks.  :) REAL ESTATE Architects Find Their Dream Client, in China IT was an unusual commission, unlike anything that Stuart Silk, a Seattle architect, had been offered in his quarter-century of practice: design three high-end custom homes for clients he would never meet. Although there were some specifications for functions and dimensions — total square feet, for example, and the number of bedrooms and baths — there wasn’t a clue as to style or a construction budget. - NY Times Deducting your real estate expenses Q: Many agents are working at additional jobs as em... 01/17/2011

  Hi, everyone.  For some reason my computer / activerain won't let me submit my headlines for today.  It says I can't have more than 65,000 characters.  So, I kept deleting pictures and articles one by one until it was down to about nothing.  But, for some reason, it's still telling me I have over 65,000 characters... which I don't at this point.  I only have about four links left.  I'll see if I can come up with anything.  Sorry to my readers for not having the headlines today.   If anyone has any idea how to rectify the problem, please let me know. Thanks.   01/16/2011

I usually like to keep the headlines to real estate related news and technology.  But today I've added some celebrity news for a change of pace.  Hope you find some interesting articles.  Thanks for reading.  Kim REAL ESTATE Short Sales: Focus on What You Can Control RISMEDIA, January 15, 2011—Everyone involved in a short sale has some accountability for successes and failures at each stage of the process. Regardless of where fingers are currently pointing, there’s good reason for real estate agents to take a long, hard look at whether they’re helping or hindering progress. Just two years ago, short sales were a niche market. Only a fraction of homeowners in distress were even aware of foreclosure alternatives, let alone that there were agents trained to assist them. Now, because of eff... 01/15/2011

Thank you everyone who have subscribed to my blog and who have expressed that they like the idea of the "headlines". REAL ESTATE Makeover at Grand Hyatt Sheds the Trump Glitter In the 1970s, Donald Trump devised a plan to rescue the aging Commodore Hotel, at 42nd Street and Lexington Avenue, from the bankrupt Penn Central railroad. The deal, which involved obtaining a generous tax break from the city, then enlisting Hyatt to operate the new hotel, gave Mr. Trump his first major real estate victory. - NY Times Forecast 2011: What Lies Ahead for the Real Estate Market RISMEDIA, January 14, 2011—Where is the real estate market going? Have we hit bottom? Is recovery around the corner? The next 12 months in the housing market will play a big role in the nation’s potential recovery. Tune into... 01/14/2011

REAL ESTATE Real Estate Marketing Strategies: How to Create Your Multiple 6-Figure Income in 2011 RISMEDIA, January 13, 2011—You are about to learn the secrets to creating a multiple six figure income while still having time to do what you love to do. This is a very exciting topic because we really are going to blow the lid off the roof and break through those glass ceilings that you’ve set for yourself. RealtyTrac Releases Year-End Foreclosure Report RISMEDIA, January 13, 2011—RealtyTrac, a leading online marketplace for foreclosure properties, released its Year-End 2010 U.S. Foreclosure Market Report, which shows a total of 3,825,637 foreclosure filings—default notices, scheduled auctions and bank repossessions—were reported on a record 2,871,891 U.S. properties in 2010, an increase o... 01/12/2011

by Hamptons Online 01/11/2011

My poor husband is out there shoveling snow (since 4:30 am).  My four year old is up, mostly due to the howling wind, insisting he doesn't have school today.  I, of course, am on AR!  It's just on the border of freezing, 33-degrees.  The wind is really blowing.  The gusts are pretty high.  I'm not exactly sure how much snow we've received.  My husband is going to give me a report now.  Looks like we got a few inches.  We should be getting another half foot or so today.  It looks like heavy, wet snow, on the verge of raining.  That will make for slick roads.  I haven't heard the plow go by yet.  I'm not sure if my husband is going into work or not.  Everything is up in the air at the moment (no pun intended).  I'll post a picture once the sun comes up.  Good morning, Active Rain!   01/11/2011

SORRY ABOUT THE MIX UP WITH THE LINKS.  IT LOOKS FINE IN THE PREVIEW, BUT SCREWS UP AFTER I SUBMIT IT   REAL ESTATE   RUMORMONGERING Is Holmby Hills' Playboy Mansion Covered in Dog Poop? Monday, January 10, 2011, by Adrian Glick Kudler "Britain's Daily Mail takes the occasion of Hugh Hefner's recent engagement to reprint some pretty icky allegationsfrom the 2006 book "Bunny Tales," which was written by former girlfriend Izabella St. James. She writes: "Everything in the mansion felt old and stale and Archie, the house dog, would regularly relieve himself on the hallway curtains, adding a powerful whiff of urine to the general scent of decay around the place."" - Curbed Los Angeles       HOUSE OF THE DAY   BROOKLINE, MASS. Contemporary Renovation Hides Behind Staid Facade Monday, Januar... 01/11/2011